The transfer, in 1981, of the town Museum collections in Sens (Yonne) to the old Archbishop's palace required great discretion and an underground passage was planned between the two buildings. Preventive archaeological excavations unearthed 22 Gallo-Roman bone combs, as well as a further 17 pieces when the excavation area was expanded. This exceptional concentration of bone artefacts incited the author to start on an experimental search at a time when bone artefacts were not finding much interest among specialists. However, ...
Read More
The transfer, in 1981, of the town Museum collections in Sens (Yonne) to the old Archbishop's palace required great discretion and an underground passage was planned between the two buildings. Preventive archaeological excavations unearthed 22 Gallo-Roman bone combs, as well as a further 17 pieces when the excavation area was expanded. This exceptional concentration of bone artefacts incited the author to start on an experimental search at a time when bone artefacts were not finding much interest among specialists. However, it was extremely adventurous to piece together a bone-worker production line and create a never before archaeologically discovered appliance used in Roman times. Obviously, the first reproductions have been directed towards combs. Those replicas pointed towards the material constraints, but also defined the constructions of necessary tools to take slabs off and conceive objects. Moreover, matrix origin - small sized compact bone - explained why bone workers used to juxtapose elements to get suitable surfaces. Various complications during free hand denture sawing led them to perfect another operating system, plausible and more reliable. Logical follow up would have been to extend experimental investigations, perhaps not to all the bone artefacts, but to a typical class of them, in order to complete the reconstructions of the equipment and suggest a general bone worker's workshop arrangement. (French Description: French description: Le transfert, en 1981, des collections du Mus�e municipal de Sens (Yonne) dans l'ancien palais des Archev�ques a n�cessit� le terrassement d'une jonction souterraine entre deux des b�timents. Des fouilles arch�ologiques pr�ventives ont notamment permis de d�couvrir 22 peignes en os d'�poque gallo-romaine, puis 17 autres lors de l'extension du secteur. Cette exceptionnelle concentration a incit� l'auteur � entreprendre une d�marche exp�rimentale � une �poque o� l'on n'accordait que peu d'int�r�t au mobilier osseux. On comprendra qu'il �tait alors aventureux de vouloir reconstituer la cha�ne op�ratoire d'un tabletier et mat�rialiser l'appareillage dont on n'a aucun t�moignage arch�ologique. C'est �videmment sur la mise en oeuvre de peignes qu'ont port� les premi�res reproductions. Ces r�pliques montraient d�j� certaines contraintes li�es � la mati�re elle-m�me, mais permettaient �galement de cerner les outils n�cessaires au pr�l�vement des plaquettes et � la conception de l'objet. Par ailleurs, l'origine des matrices - os compact dimensionnellement limit� - expliquait pourquoi les tabletiers juxtaposaient les �l�ments pour obtenir la surface ad�quate. Diverses complications, lors du sciage � main lev�e de la denture, ont amen� � mettre au point un autre mode op�ratoire plausible et plus assur�. La suite logique voulait que les recherches exp�rimentales s'�tendent sinon � l'ensemble du mobilier osseux, du moins � des cat�gories d'objets d'une m�me typologie permettant de compl�ter l'outillage et sugg�rer l'agencement de l'atelier d'un tabletier g�n�raliste.)
Read Less
